Crowstar
''Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.'' "You know, day after day I test more than just your hunting and fighting skills. I test your strength of mind, your intelligence, your ability to resist temptation and figure out traps and lies. You've passed every single one of them in a flash." ''-Crowstar to Ashpaw when Ashpaw accuses him of wanting her to train in the Dark Forest ''(Into the Dark, Chapter 20) Crowstar is a mostly black tom with a white tail-tip, white ears, and back-stripes. Crowstar is one of the main characters of ''Two Birds' Paths ''(TBP) and the fourth known leader of MistClan. His mother was Softsnow and Pinecloud. His sister is Doveflower, the MistClan Medicine Cat, and his first apprentice was Ashpaw. Crowstar trains in the Dark Forest and often teaches his apprentices the same moves he learns there. He's killed two out of three of the Dark Forest leaders and became one himself, despite being a living breathing eating leader still. Few cats knew about his ways when he became leader or his methods to become leader. Age: 17 Moons (1.5 years) Death: None History Crowkit was the firstborn kit and delivered by Kaleweed. He is later seen scowling at his denmates and recalling when Dovekit fell into the stream, preventing him from crossing until he was three moons instead of one. He squabbles with Fernkit, who then leaves yowling for Reedeye, her mother. Frondkit follows her, and they aren't seen again in the chapter. He and Toadkit start playing a game that requires them to leave camp, breaking the rules, so Dovekit retreats to the nursery. Toadkit leaps half a tail-length short of the other side of the stream and falls in. Crowkit watches Toadkit helplessly, unable to cross the stream without falling in, too. Reedeye asks him what happened, but immediately abandons him and tries to save Toadkit without swimming when she sees the tom's state. When Toadkit hits his head on a rock, Crowkit gives up until Ashfall jumps into the stream to save him. After Ashfall is dragged back into the stream after saving Toadkit, Crowkit goes back to the camp, doubting that Ashfall would be ok. The next morning, Blazefang insists that they go find Ashfall at the pond where the streams and waterfalls lead and Lazulishard agrees to form a patrol of whoever wants to go. Rainwillow insists on going, and Crowkit does, too. Lazulishard reluctantly allows him to go but warns him that he won't be helped. When Ashfall's dead body is found, Crowkit reflects on how Toadkit's body had been found earlier in the search, and how he even enjoyed being the cause of the two tom's deaths. Later Crowkit is giving his apprentice name, Crowpaw, and is mentored by Fernripple. Fernripple warns him to be wary of the stream, and he snaps that he knew, making Fernripple remember. They go to HollowClan's border, where Fernripple jumps on the border to tell him where it is. A hidden patrol of HollowClan warriors warns her to get off, and she tells Crowpaw "kitten see, kitten don't do?". The HollowClan warriors taunt Crowpaw, angering him. He launches himself across the border at Hazelstar. Willowheart throws him off of her, and Tumblepaw helps his mentor. A patrol of MistClan warriors comes out from the MistClan border, Fernripple froze in place, and helps Crowpaw fight the HollowClan cats off. In the end, Crowpaw blinds Tumblepaw and, with the help of Blazefang, who is stated to hate Crowpaw, kills Heatherstar. It turns out Heatherstar used her last life, and Lazulistar sends Crowpaw and Blazefang back. Crowpaw is stated to have been confined to camp, and so paces restlessly around the camp during the Gathering, where he is mentioned and heavily threatened alongside Blazefang. Crowpaw has a dream about driving out HollowClan single-pawed, which is when Blackshadow, a Dark Forest cat, appears to him. He is suspicious at first, but upon learning who he is, he excitedly accepts his help. Blackshadow warns him to get some rest, and he does so. Later, Crowpaw launches himself into camp, yowling that there was an attack. The sad mood is instantly replaced with tenseness as the HollowClan cats burst into MistClan's camp. Crowpaw is lost in the fighting and isn't seen until the end of the battle, earning his Warrior name, Crowtalon. Crowtalon is left to sleep, excited to announce his victory and a new name to Blackshadow. When there, Blackshadow says he is still an apprentice in the Dark Forest, and Crowtalon challenges him. In the end, he kills the Dark Forest leader and goes to wash his claws, gloating to himself over his victory. Crowtalon is seen in Doveflower's dream cutting a silver she-cat's belly open and then killing Doveflower. Crowtalon drags Doveflower behind the Great Willow and hisses at her for missing her Dark Forest, told to be StarClan, training, declaring that he even got a new mentor. When Doveflower protests that StarClan had given her a prophecy instead that night, he asks to hear it. Frondtail saves Doveflower from answering. Crowtalon requests to go on the HollowClan border patrol, in which Lazulistar offers for him to go on a different patrol. He objects, saying he was only an apprentice when he picked a fight, and she reluctantly agrees to let him go. When Pinecloud and Blazefang get aggressive toward HollowClan before they leave camp, Crowtalon lashes his tail, reflecting on how Softsnow had died to save his pathetic sister in the battle with HollowClan. He reluctantly agrees to only get aggressive if the HollowClan cats did and thinks about how he needed Fernripple alone in case Lilypad takes over MistClan for Lazulistar to eliminate her chances of being the deputy. He knows he's a young cat but gives himself the goal of signing up for every patrol possible and maybe doing something great to rise his chances of becoming the deputy when Lazulistar or Lilypad passes. He scents HollowClan and warns the patrol, making Blazefang snarl that they could take them. Crowtalon warns him that they don't want an all-out war with HollowClan before Fernripple has a chance to speak. Willowheart growls at MistClan for letting Blazefang and HollowClan on the patrol, and Blazefang snaps back that HollowClan was letting their murderers on a patrol as well. Crowtalon silences him and asks how the prey is running. When asked back, he reports the prey is running well. He lets Fernripple assure them that they were just marking the border. Pinecloud launches himself at Willowheart, furious for his mate's death, but with the help of Fernripple Crowtalon pulls him off. The two of them tell him to go back to camp and check with Willowheart that no harm was done. Willowheart shakes her head and lets them finish marking the border. Fernripple stops Crowtalon halfway back to camp and warns him that he shouldn't have taken the initiative to speak first there. Crowtalon catches the patrol going to the PalmClan border and requests to come with them. He hisses at Juniperlight and Ferncreek to focus when they whispered about Briarshine's adopted litter and asks Lilypad if he could speak to Sunstorm, who was at the border. He asks if the prey was running well when allowed, and Sunstorm nods and asks the same. Crowtalon nods and thanks him for his help in the battle, and finishes marking the border. Crowtalon goes hunting and ends up coming back at moonhigh. Lazulistar reminds him of his vigil but assures him that they would say he did his full vigil anyways. She allows him to put the rest of his fish back, but on the last trip back he smells Doveflower. He doesn't think about this too long, however, as the sun was rising and he needed to get back to camp before anyone awoke. He sees Doveflower's tail enter camp and quickly slides into his place. A couple of heartbeats later, Lilypad comes and takes him off of his vigil. He instantly volunteers for the dawn patrol, and she teases him for fishing overnight but allows him to go. He purrs, happy that his plan was going so well. Crowtalon stands up against Lazulistar when she attempts to make Rainwillow's kits apprentices before a moon, nodding and stating that they would die from a young rabbit and didn't have big enough teeth to kill a fish. Crowtalon later is in the Nursery when the kits start claiming that HollowClan is invading. He follows along, swiping at them and saying that HollowClan is winning. He then starts to prompt for Crowpaw to come, but the kits start arguing. He tells Ashkit to ambush him, then states that because of the squabbles MistClan would be easy to take down. Toadkit leaps at his paws, but at the same time, Ashkit ambushes him and wins the battle for the kits. Crowtalon reflects on how even if the kits, for some reason, were excluded at least they had each other to share their pain, and how Doveflower and Softsnow - dead Softsnow - had tried to comfort him. He promises himself that he'll prove himself to all the clans, even though only Lazulistar and Lilypad currently respected him. Crowtalon joined the dawn patrol and reflects on how every other night he would hunt fish, and every other night he would train in the Dark Forest. The Clan had started asking him for specific fish on his nighttime hunts, and three moons later he was the most respected warrior in the clan. He had cut his hunting nights in half and noticed that Doveflower was never there on his full sleeping nights. Crowtalon leads Lilypad to a clearing, of which she thinks is evidence of HollowClan on their territory. Darkwing, Crowtalon's new Dark Forest mentor, told him where a supposed fox den was. When they got to the clearing, Darkwing distracts Lilypad while Crowtalon kills her. Darkwing and Crowtalon slash her up a bit more and scatter HollowClan's fur and scent everywhere. Crowtalon then goes to camp, claiming that HollowClan killed Lilypad, who gave her life so he could escape unharmed. Lazulistar names Crowtalon as her new deputy and Crowtalon is swarmed by congratulating cats. Crowtalon trains in the Dark Forest and kills Darkwing that night. He is then named the next Dark Forest leader and cleans himself off. He wakes up with screaming muscles then gets out of the den, being the only warrior awake. He catches the kits in the reeds due to their chuckling. He tells Frondtail to lead the Dawn Patrol and that she'd earned it with how hard she had hunted the day before. She accepts, surprised, and Crowtalon goes to Doveflower's den. She wasn't there, but she addresses him from the entrance with herbs in her jaws. Crowtalon notes that she looks like she hadn't slept all night. He growls at her and demands to know where she was with unsheathed claws to find out she couldn't sleep and was gathering herbs. He shreds her ear and hisses at her to not do that again. He sees Frondtail leave with her patrol and tells Gingereye and Pinecloud to go fish by the lake. He starts to note that the queens, elders, and kits are asleep when Rabbitstar yowls to attack and leaps out of the reeds at Lazulistar, who was just coming out of her den. Crowtalon is held back from helping her by a wave of warriors, and he yowls that there are too many of them as he kills Torrentflame and trips Cottonfern. When Lazulistar yowls to retreat, Crowtalon grabs Riverkit and dashes to the entrance, saying that they would come back for Lazulistar soon. The queens and elder dash out before him. Briarshine comes back for Riverkit and tells Crowtalon to help Lazulistar. Crowtalon nods and gives her the adopted kit. HollowClan runs by, making Lazulistar confused. After a little bit of talking on Crowtalon's part, he killed Lazulistar seven more times since Rabbitstar had killed her twice earlier before. He comments that it was too easy as he picks his fur out of her throat, then goes back to report that HollowClan killed Lazulistar. When Blazefang says they should attack, Crowtalon objects, stating that they outnumber MistClan. Ashkit points out that Crowtalon is leader, and everyone goes back with their dead leader's body. Crowtalon gives Lazulistar a speech and names Blazefang his deputy. He says he will go to the moonstone to get his nine lives, and he is shown collecting his lives next. Three moons later, Crowtalon apprentices Briarshine's adoptive kits, taking Ashpaw as his own apprentice. He immediately tests her, and she instantly passes.